A day in the Life of an Elven Parent
by sunnyblainey
Summary: Thranduil has a rough day with a three year old Legolas.


Title: A day in the life of an elvish parent.

Summary: Thranduil has a rough day with a 3 year old Legolas

Rating: G

Disclaimer: I don't own any of the characters, or places. Just the story.

The tiny elf looked around the room. It was still dark, but it was early morning. He sat up in his bed and stared at anything that moved. The open closet door caught the child's eye and he quickly hid under the covers once more. He remained hidden for a good ten minutes, then ran as fast as he could to the door. He pulled it open and continued to run down the hallway all the way to his father's room. Thranduil was still awake, having been doing paperwork all night.

"Ada!! There's a monster in my cwoset!!!" Legolas jumped straight into his father's arms and buried his face into the king's tunic.

"Legolas, ion-nin, a monster in the closet now? Let's go take a look." Thranduil knew this was just the start of a very long day. Legolas had never slept a whole night in the entire three years of his life. As they passed a window the king could see the sun rising. 'So he's started sleeping till dawn now… he may start sleeping entire nights yet!' The elven king was excited at this prospect. He suspected his son's lack of sleep was to do with his mother's tragic death at his birth. Thranduil still mourned the loss of his wife, as did much of the Mirkwood kingdom. He didn't let that stop him from giving his son a good life though. He looked forward to getting a whole night's sleep, between Legolas' nightmares and monsters in the closet and paperwork, he hadn't slept a whole night in three years either.

"Ada, here! See? He's hiding in there." Legolas pointed to the closet before dashing behind his father to hide.

"Who's hiding there ion-nin? I don't see anyone." Thranduil went through this almost every night… he dreaded the day when there may actually be a monster in the closet.

"The gobwin! He's here every night, he wants to eat me." Legolas had a well developed imagination for an elf his age. He also hadn't quite developed the ability to use the letter "L" save for speaking his own name, which still came out "Leg' as!" Thranduil opened the closet wide causing Legolas to scream and dive under the covers of his bed, as he did every other time.

"No goblins here, Legolas. You can come out now." Thranduil said calmly. When Legolas didn't emerge from his hiding place he went to sit on the bed and placed his arm around his son. Then he began to sing the elvish lullaby that always calmed Legolas down. Soon the three-year-old was fast asleep on the bed. Thranduil quietly exited the room and went to go alert the kitchen staff to get breakfast ready. It would only be an hour before Legolas woke up again.

After breakfast Legolas was full of energy and began to run around the palace. He tore through the leisure hall and broke the ugly vase in the hallway. Thranduil gave up on chasing him by mid-morning. He looked at his head elf, Randomir, with pleading eyes and the elf immediately understood. As he walked away from the king to find the young prince he laughed softly to himself, his job was to assist the king in his royal duties, but he found himself more than once having to baby sit Legolas. He didn't mind this at all, in his opinion watching the king's son was indeed a royal duty.

The day proceeded thus, Legolas would run out of energy by mealtime. Then after eating would be off again like a hobbit on weed. Thranduil had his hands full dealing with messengers and council meetings, so Randomir usually ended up dealing with Legolas' antics. Somewhere in mid-afternoon, Legolas decided it would be fun to play with his toy bow and makeshift arrows that he made by carving the ends of sticks to a point. He kept quiet at fist settling to shoot at targets his father had put up outside, but this eventually became to easy for him. The young prince decided to try for moving targets, but as his kind heart would not allow him to kill any birds or squirrels he went inside and began to search for something the may prove to be an effective moving target. And he found it. Grinning he took aim at the chef who was now preparing the evening meal. Unaware of the prince, the chef bustled about the kitchen.

"Figures, we're out of basil again!" he muttered angrily under his breath. "I could've sworn I restocked this just a few days ago…" It was true, he had restocked it a few days ago, but the royal family loved basil, and put it in just about every dish they had. The chef exited the kitchen to find more basil still muttering about how he hadn't seen Legolas recently, wondered what sort of trouble he was up to now. Just then he felt a stinging in his arm and cried out loud. Legolas hit the floor giggling madly.

"Why you little devil! I'll get you for this!!!" cried the angry chef as he pulled the short stick out of his arm. He started chasing Legolas around the palace, Legolas laughed thinking it was a game and skillfully hid and ran at the right times, he'd played this game with his ada many times before. But the angry elf had no game in mind, prince or not in his mind the elfling had to pay for what he did.

Thranduil was just exiting a meeting when he saw Legolas running towards him. He reacted just in time to scoop the child up into his arms.

"What are you doing running around in the palace ion-nin? You know your not supposed to be… oh I see." Thranduil had just noticed the angry chef standing in front of him. "Landon? Last I checked you were supposed to be preparing the evening meal, not playing some cat and mouse game with my son."

Landon's eyes flashed with pure fury. " I was on my way to get some more basil when your.. "son" decided to shoot me in the arm!" He blurted out furiously.

"Shoot you? Indeed," noticing the tiny trickle of blood on Landon's arm, Thranduil raised an eyebrow, "Last I checked a twig in the arm was not so grievous as to relieve you from your duties, now get back in the kitchen before something burns."

"Yessir…" Landon glared at the prince as he returned to his job, clearly not happy with this treatment.

"Thanks Ada!" Legolas hugged Thranduil tightly.

"Your not out of trouble young one, I've told you once, I've told you a thousand times to practice outside! I can take that bow away just as easily as I gave it to you. Remember our agreement?" Legolas looked visibly hurt at the thought of his beloved bow being taken away.

"Yes Ada, I 'member…." Legolas said solemnly.

"And what was it?"

"If I don't hurt anyone and I practice outside I can have a reaw bow when I'm six, right?"

"Right. And if not?"

"Then you take away my bow and I can't shoot untew I'm ready to start training."

"Correct. Now go wash up for dinner." Thranduil put Legolas down on the floor.

"But Ada, I just wanted to try on a moving target… the ones you set up are too easy now." Legolas looked down, seemingly fascinated by his feet.

"Really now? Well, how about after supper, I'll go set up some moving targets for you." Thranduil was very impressed at his son's skill in archery. He was skilled beyond anything a three year old should ever be able to do. Legolas looked up with pure joy in his eyes and jumped on his father with a mighty leap.

"Thank you Ada!!!!" With that he ran off to get ready for the meal.

After supper, Thranduil was out side putting targets on a rope so that when someone pulled on the end of it, the targets would move back and forth. He moved the stationary targets farther back and added some targets shaped like wargs. He stood back to admire his work, and tested the moving targets. Someone would need to be out here with Legolas to move the targets, but that was fine since he knew Legolas would probably enjoy having someone to admire his skill. Legolas also had friends over frequently, so they could take turns shooting and moving the targets. When Thranduil felt it was safe for his son to shoot he called Legolas out to him.

The elfling came running out with his bow and quiver ready.

"I'll move the targets for you ion-nin. I'd like to see how much you've improved." Legolas nodded excitedly and took aim. He hit every target on the ground for a warm-up, then focused his attention on the moving targets. _Aim, fire! _He thought to himself. Hit, miss, miss, hit, hit, miss. Last target. Legolas was enjoying the challenge this provided and took careful aim for the final target. Concentrating hard he drew his bow and fired. Hit! Thranduil stopped moving the targets and hugged his son tightly.

"Ion-nin, you really amaze me at times!" Legolas just yawned. "I think it's bedtime, come along Legolas." Thranduil took his son's hand and led him away.

"Good night Ada. Thanks for putting up those targets." Legolas whispered.

"Your welcome my son. Sleep well tonight." Thranduil gently kissed Legolas' forehead and pulled the covers over him. As he walked towards his own room he smiled and thought, "I'd better get to sleep, no doubt he'll find a monster in his closet again. OR perhaps this is the night when he'll finally sleep the whole night." He lay himself upon the bed and fell into a light sleep, waiting for tomorrow to come.


End file.
